Max is a self-taught cook who has been in the restaurant industry for seven years. He got his start cooking and running kitchens in Boston, and Dartmouth, Massachusetts, before moving to Providence, Rhode Island, and ending up in Chicago. Though he has had some success in restaurants, earning a James Beard Award nomination, and winning a Starchefs Rising Star award, He is now glad to be taking a step back from the kitchen to be able to connect with the passionate home cooks that come to learn at The Chopping Block.
Recent Posts
The Best Home Deep Fryer is Your Wok
That’s right, more wok content. If you’re a devotee of The Chopping Blog, you may be familiar with my previous work regarding the most versatile pan (that should be) in your kitchen: the wok. In my ...
Previously on Cheese Trials: I decided to try my hand at cheese making, something I’ve never really attempted before aside from the very simple ricotta that many cooks learn to make at restaurants. I ...
Now that we're coming to the end of summer I keep hearing people talking about ‘spooky season’. Well, I love All Hallows Eve as much as the next ex-goth, but there’s something that I look forward to ...
As a self-taught chef, I quite literally wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for food and cooking books. There are few resources as important in developing an understanding of the different cooking ...
I talk a lot to students about the importance of using fresh spices. So many people have little plastic jars of ground spices in their pantries that could be half a decade old or older. At that age, ...
This time of year a few things are true: it’s hot, too hot to cook certainly; if you have a garden and made the mistake of planting mint, it has gone absolutely berserk; and sometimes everyone in ...
As a chef there are a lot of things most people just buy that I’ve tried to make from scratch. There are the basics like bread, ice cream, or mayo, but I’ve also made my own croissants, emulsified ...
Those of us who have grown up around diet culture have invariably spent some portion of our lives denying ourselves in the interest of some nebulous concept of “healthiness.” Some who reject the ...
How to Make the Most of Summer Without Dying of Heat Stroke
Now that we’ve arrived at high summer and the temperatures in much of the country are soaring past records, the time has come to rethink summer activities. Don’t get me wrong - swimming, grilling, ...
Stir frying is one of the world's great cooking techniques. It's fast, can create hugely divergent types of dishes with a tremendously diverse array of flavors, and it's relatively simple. With just ...
